SARA WOOD; AUTHOR OF "LIFE'S LESSONS," &c. "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, LONGFELLOW. LONDON: JOHN GREEN, 121, NEWGATE STREET. MDCCCXLIII. THE TESTS OF TIME. CHAPTER I. "Questo è saper, questa è felice vità TASSO. THE home of Elizabeth and Kate Milner was such as a foreigner might describe as characteristic of an essentially English home. As a building, however, it was not in any way remarkable for beauty. It could boast of no particular style of architecture, and was not placed among what could strictly be called beautiful scenery. Originally a mere farm-house upon a small paternal estate, Dr. Milner on retiring from practice in the little town of C—, at the death of his wife, had for many successive years indulged his taste and employed his time in the transformation of the rough-looking tenement into something resembling the dwelling-house of a country gentleman. Paint, plaistering and paper did their work within doors in securing comfort and ornament; whilst without, French windows, trellis-work and verandahs banished B all semblance of the rusticity of a farm. It was, however, in the laying out and planting of the few acres of land which surrounded the dwelling that the greatest revolution was effected, and the taste of its owner most displayed. Many were the changes made and experiments tried before the farm-yard, kitchen-garden and paddock were transformed into the gently sloping lawns, the luxuriant plantations and gay flowerbeds, which made the "Briars" an object as certain to attract the notice of the traveller who overlooked it from the top of the London coach, as it was to excite the admiration of the inhabitants of C, who on a summer's evening would stroll up the hill and peep over its palings or through its gates. In this pleasant retreat, the education of Dr. Milner's daughters was conducted as in the privacy and retirement of a monastery. On leaving the town of C, in which he had practised many years as a physician, the recent death of his wife afforded Dr. Milner a pretext for withdrawing from what little society the place afforded. A love of seclusion had grown upon him, fostered, perhaps, by a remembrance of all the petty intrigue, scandal and detraction amongst which his profession had thrown him. He saw in such society no advantages for his children, and he heeded it not for himself. His books and his garden supplied him with activity of mind and body; the education of his girls, a sufficient object of interest; and, in spite of the prognostics of many of his former acquaintances at C, his solitude at the Briars had neither forced him to marry again, return to his profession, nor driven him mad. With the exception of occasional instruction from masters from Cand the assistance during two years of a competent governess, Elizabeth and Kate Milner owed their education principally to their father. Their tastes, habits, and characters had in a great measure been coloured and influenced by his own, whilst bad and good had arisen out of the secluded nature of their lives. From the faults which they might have gained by mixing with the society of a country town they had been spared, whilst those feelings and affections which can alone be drawn out by contact with others, with many of their fellow-creatures, were yet dormant within them. They were wholly inexperienced in life and human nature; and it remained to be proved whether, on coming in contact with the world, strength or weakness would shew itself with their simplicity. Wheels and levers may have their right form and proportion and degree of strength, but we can alone ascertain the power of the machine when in motion. All the best influences of external nature had operated upon their minds from their earliest |